Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to cool People answer your questions instead
Speaker 2: of doing other cool stuff podcasts. That's normally called cool
Speaker 2: people the cool stuff, but today is called cool people
Speaker 2: who answer questions instead of doing other cool stuff. I'm
Speaker 2: your host, Margaret Giljoy, and with me today answering questions
Speaker 2: is Sophie. It's Sophie.
Speaker 1: You look so cool right now. Margaret's standing while she's recording,
Speaker 1: and so she just looks really cool.
Speaker 2: That's because I'm like really fit. You know, you're so fit,
Speaker 2: so fit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm like slouched. I have like a weiring,
Speaker 1: like all black, and I'm like definitely slouched over looking
Speaker 1: very very uncool.
Speaker 2: I have a rule where I can stand for a
Speaker 2: like one episode recording, but I cannot stand for a
Speaker 2: two episodes recording.
Speaker 1: That's it's actually, yeah, I respect that. I think it's
Speaker 1: I think it's I think that would social violation. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, I feel like legally correct.
Speaker 2: So oh, I forgot to introduce everyone else. Our audio
Speaker 2: engineer is, of course Ian. No, what nope?
Speaker 1: What? Nope?
Speaker 2: Where do Ian go?
Speaker 1: Oh? Ian still here? Oh?
Speaker 2: Okay, good, Ian's still here.
Speaker 1: Ian and Daniel did like a like a Freaky Friday,
Speaker 1: except a face off like a face off, and have
Speaker 1: swapped editing duties and so now the editor of this
Speaker 1: podcast is one DJ Danel. Hi Danel, Hi, Danel, everybody Danel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you're this is the first time, so everyone,
Speaker 2: if you're listening, you have to say Hi Danel. Our
Speaker 2: theme music was still written by on woman, right, that.
Speaker 1: Has not changed. That will never change because that song
Speaker 1: is a banger, right.
Speaker 2: Unless there's a DJ Daniel remix of the song.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I would listen to that. Daniel's so talented.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I really like the music that everyone produces
Speaker 2: for cool Zone. So this is you all have probably
Speaker 2: figured out because it's Wednesday and not Monday, that this
Speaker 2: is not a regular episode. That's why the title has
Speaker 2: changed because this is a Q and A thing that
Speaker 2: we do once a year at the beginning of the
Speaker 2: year until the heat death of the universe. So that's
Speaker 2: where we asked your questions on social media and it
Speaker 2: was annoying not beg y'all's questions were fine, but we
Speaker 2: had to go on to social media to do it.
Speaker 2: That I like to pretend like I've quit Twitter and
Speaker 2: it is demonstrably false. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, I was gonna say every time
Speaker 1: you say it, and then and then I see you
Speaker 1: on there, I'm like, I know there she is the
Speaker 1: big liah layah liah puns on faja.
Speaker 2: Yeah, aspirationally and aspirationally quit Twitter user me. But yeah,
Speaker 2: we have questions, then we're going to answer them.
Speaker 1: And you know what we noticed was that the is
Speaker 1: very representative of how much of a terrible place Twitter is.
Speaker 1: The questions on Instagram are just better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's some good ones on Twitter. If you asked
Speaker 2: a question on Twitter, it's not inherently bad, no, but
Speaker 2: overall overall the quality.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but let's let's get started, all right. I am
Speaker 1: going to be asking the questions because that is my
Speaker 1: role today. Magpie, you talk a lot about the value
Speaker 1: of community. Do you have any advice for people who
Speaker 1: don't feel like they belong anywhere or who really struggle
Speaker 1: to find the community and be accepted.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I sort of love this question great because
Speaker 2: it's a really important question. And also I do I
Speaker 2: talk a lot about community. I talk a lot both
Speaker 2: in the History podcast and so do a preparedness podcast
Speaker 2: called Live Like the World. Is dying where I talk
Speaker 2: about community preparedness. I am an introvert. I am a
Speaker 2: pretty hard introvert. On the average day, I see zero humans.
Speaker 2: I live in the woods. My best friend is a
Speaker 2: dog who's forty five pounds. I can do squats with
Speaker 2: him at about eight. He gets really annoyed.
Speaker 1: Again just bragging about how unbelievably fit you are.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. It's totally not that I can't
Speaker 2: do more squats, is that my dog gets upset. So
Speaker 2: I think about this question a lot, right, because community
Speaker 2: does matter, But like people tend to think of community
Speaker 2: as like the realm of the extroverts, and the realm
Speaker 2: of the extroverts is a scary place where people expect
Speaker 2: you to dance in front of people. But that's not
Speaker 2: the only way to have community, and it's hard because
Speaker 2: there is some degree of putting yourself out there that's necessary.
Speaker 2: I would say that primarily when people are struggling to
Speaker 2: find ways to connect, I would say overall, prioritize connecting
Speaker 2: with people in real life rather than connecting with people
Speaker 2: just over the internet and especially over social media. I
Speaker 2: think that face to face interactions have like a sort
Speaker 2: of built in accountability. Like the kind of shit people
Speaker 2: say to you on the internet is a lot meaner
Speaker 2: than what people usually say to you in person. Like
Speaker 2: obviously people say mean things in person, right, but like
Speaker 2: no one's like you know, people have a little bit
Speaker 2: of a like like when you're within punching distance, like
Speaker 2: people act a little bit more politely, right, go places
Speaker 2: for common interests. And I think that activism is actually
Speaker 2: a really good way to do this. And one of
Speaker 2: the ways to get involved in activism is to think
Speaker 2: about the specific problems that you are excited about addressing
Speaker 2: that feel like the most pressing to you. Whether it
Speaker 2: is the current movement that is really really big, like
Speaker 2: I mean while we're listening to it, right, like Palestinian
Speaker 2: libration movement and solidarity movement is a very big thing, right,
Speaker 2: but also figuring out specifically, like what strength you bring
Speaker 2: to that kind of thing, Right, If you're an artist,
Speaker 2: you might be bringing like, hey, I'll draw flyers, right,
Speaker 2: or I'll take notes at meetings, or I'll volunteer in
Speaker 2: the kitchen. You know, if you like go to a
Speaker 2: party and everything sucks and you don't know how to
Speaker 2: interact with anyone, you just like go find the snacks
Speaker 2: and you hang up by the snacks when you talk
Speaker 2: to the other introvert who's hanging out by the snacks.
Speaker 1: Or you find the one dog at the party.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, that's the best, that's the best.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then like the other person who only wants
Speaker 2: to hang out with the dog, you can end up
Speaker 2: having a conversation with yeah, or you just hang out
Speaker 2: with a dog, and then it's like all win win, Yes.
Speaker 2: And you can do this by volunteering at like gatherings.
Speaker 2: Right if you show up and you're like, how can
Speaker 2: I help, and then you're like, oh, we totally need
Speaker 2: someone to pour coffee, right, and then you're like great,
Speaker 2: I have a purpose. And for us introverts it is
Speaker 2: really useful to have a purpose in social gatherings. I
Speaker 2: really like tabling. I actually really like presenting as part
Speaker 2: of my introversion. I'm a weird, outgoing introvert.
Speaker 1: But like, you're an ambi avert, Yeah, I'm like a
Speaker 1: I'm an ambiavert.
Speaker 2: Yeah no, that makes sense to me actually, And so
Speaker 2: if I have a purpose, I'm good and I really
Speaker 2: recommend it. You do have to go out and meet people. Yeah,
Speaker 2: in order to have community, but you don't have to
Speaker 2: like go out all the time and meet people. You
Speaker 2: can go to like three parties and then be done,
Speaker 2: or like go to a couple activist meetings, figure out
Speaker 2: how you plug in, and then kind of sit back
Speaker 2: a little bit and like and if you're an extrovert,
Speaker 2: your job is to make sure that all the introverts
Speaker 2: are still wrangled and still like connected, and like reach
Speaker 2: out to them every now and then be like, hey,
Speaker 2: like we're putting together. I'm using this artist as an example,
Speaker 2: but like, hey, we need a new flyer, Like are
Speaker 2: you available? Can you do this?
Speaker 1: Thing? You know?
Speaker 2: And any other thing that I talk about a lot
Speaker 2: is just like literally know your actual physical neighbors if
Speaker 2: you can. This is going to be very different in
Speaker 2: vary different places. I'm not saying become friends with your neighbors,
Speaker 2: but like know who they are and like figure out
Speaker 2: how much you can trust them and stuff, because sometimes
Speaker 2: community is literally just who's around you. And I actually
Speaker 2: think introverts have another advantage in this, where like I'm
Speaker 2: not super caught up on who's mad at who or what,
Speaker 2: who's dating whom, and blah blah blah and I don't
Speaker 2: give a shit, you know, because I don't care. So
Speaker 2: that's great. So then I can still sort of be
Speaker 2: friends with ever. I mean obviously, like when one person's
Speaker 2: like a horrible piece shit, it's worth knowing about.
Speaker 1: Right, But yeah, can I add one thought to it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's something that I say all the time to people,
Speaker 1: But like, support your friends and their weird hobbies. I
Speaker 1: think supporting your friends and their weird hobbies, they will
Speaker 1: support you in your weird hobbies and then organically community
Speaker 1: will happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: And if you're like, hey, I like this weird thing,
Speaker 1: are people gonna think I'm weird? No, because there's other
Speaker 1: weird people who like that weird thing and it's normal
Speaker 1: and it's cool and that's good, and then you have
Speaker 1: your community.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And if people don't think that the weird thing
Speaker 2: you're into is cool, if they're just not into it,
Speaker 2: that's fine. But if they think it sucks, then like,
Speaker 2: we'll fuck them.
Speaker 1: We'll fuck them.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That's the other thing that you definitely will learn is
Speaker 1: like we'll fuck them is totally okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, other people aren't better than you. Whoever you're listening
Speaker 2: to other people aren't better than you. Well, there's some people.
Speaker 2: I guess Hitler is dead, but like you know, everyone's
Speaker 2: better than Elon Musk. If you ever like think to
Speaker 2: yourself like, oh I suck, just be like you're not
Speaker 2: Elon Musk. You're doing better in somebody, you know, in
Speaker 2: terms of being a person.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you ready for the next one?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm born ready.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you're.
Speaker 2: Just so fit.
Speaker 1: It's it's my favorite thing is how it's doing squats magpie.
Speaker 1: Are there cases where you started researching and had to
Speaker 1: drop them as a subject because you learned bad things
Speaker 1: about them?
Speaker 2: Okay, So I've had moments where I would have, but
Speaker 2: I work on a really tight deadline, and so what
Speaker 2: I usually end up doing is like if the if
Speaker 2: the core character is actually kind of a piece of garbage,
Speaker 2: I shift the story to be around the larger social movement.
Speaker 2: And I try to do that anyway on the show,
Speaker 2: like every now and it's about individuals, but usually it's
Speaker 2: about larger social movements where I focus on individuals, and
Speaker 2: then like what happens instead is that there's people I
Speaker 2: try to avoid, Like I not want to talk about
Speaker 2: Margaret Sanger, right, who's the founder of planned parenthood is
Speaker 2: eugenicist who used to be an anarchist, who is more
Speaker 2: complicated than anyone wants to get into. I don't want
Speaker 2: to get into it. I don't even want to get
Speaker 2: into it right now. But I was like doing something
Speaker 2: on early birth control advocates and I'm like, you know,
Speaker 2: time to talk about how messy that is because all
Speaker 2: these motherfuckers are into eugenics, you know, so I just
Speaker 2: do messy shit. I don't know, Yeah, figure it out.
Speaker 1: What has been the most pleasant surprise you've encountered in
Speaker 1: researching and presenting any topic on the show.
Speaker 2: Oh god, I don't know if I can come up
Speaker 2: with an example off the top of my head. But
Speaker 2: I really like when historical men turn out to like
Speaker 2: be wife guys.
Speaker 1: It's my favorite fun. It's so fun because you know,
Speaker 1: in reality, the only wife guys that exist are James
Speaker 1: Stout and Daniel Goodman. In my life, yeah, I love Danel,
Speaker 1: but it's really fun when they show up in history
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, man could be our guys one day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. Just people who just like genuinely are just
Speaker 2: like really into supporting the women. If you're like a
Speaker 2: straight guy, and you're really into supporting the women who
Speaker 2: are close to you in your life. Yeah, that's fucking great.
Speaker 2: And I wish that wasn't the exception, and I'm proud
Speaker 2: of everyone who's working to make it not the exception.
Speaker 2: But that's what I get excited about when men meet
Speaker 2: a minimum bar that I didn't expect them to.
Speaker 1: I think there's another thing that, like, when you figure
Speaker 1: out that you have like a connection, like one person
Speaker 1: removed to somebody in a story, you get really excited.
Speaker 2: Oh that's true too, you get really excited.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask the frog question because I've I've been
Speaker 1: holding out on the frog question. Somebody asked, somebody asked
Speaker 1: on Twitter if we had a favorite frogs. And we're
Speaker 1: gonna go to a quick break after this, but I
Speaker 1: think that we should answer the frog question first, Margaret.
Speaker 2: I think we know you should go first. Okay, you
Speaker 2: have a stronger answer.
Speaker 1: I have a stronger answer, And I'm very excited about this.
Speaker 1: I am now a frog boy mom, which is something
Speaker 1: that I'm very excited about. My mom got me a
Speaker 1: gift of two African dwarf frogs and they're awesome and
Speaker 1: they jumpy and they're in their little tank that's like
Speaker 1: got rainbow rocks, so they're already just being prideful, which
Speaker 1: is nice. We're raising them right from the start and
Speaker 1: they're adorable.
Speaker 2: And Alex Jones gay frogs. They're just starting out. It's
Speaker 2: not the water turning. I'm gay. The funniest thing you've
Speaker 2: ever said to me.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna think that every time I look at them.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. But they're amazing and I've met
Speaker 1: them and uh and my mom won't let me take
Speaker 1: them back home to my house until after Christmas, which
Speaker 1: is such a mom thing. But I visited them and
Speaker 1: I've properly named them. And there's one that's like small
Speaker 1: with like a little head, and his name is Stanley Tucci.
Speaker 1: And then there's one that's long and skinny and lengthy
Speaker 1: and his name is Kareem Abdul Jabbar or the Captain.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, and I love them. And African doarf frogs
Speaker 1: are now my favorite frogs. So if you know anything
Speaker 1: about African doarf frogs, please message me. I would like
Speaker 1: to know.
Speaker 2: Hell yeah, Margaret, Okay, my favorite frogs currently are the
Speaker 2: concrete frogs that I'm going to give my father for Christmas,
Speaker 2: and this episode comes out after Christmas, so I can
Speaker 2: say it. Yeah, and I'm getting them from the Cursed
Speaker 2: Concrete Animal Store.
Speaker 1: They're a curse concrete And it's in one of those
Speaker 1: stores that sells like the giant like like statues of
Speaker 1: like animals. Is it one of those.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like like you go up and there's like a
Speaker 2: concrete sasquatch next to a concrete kneeling soldier in front
Speaker 2: of a cross next to Yes, Oh.
Speaker 1: I know exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the first time I ever went there, I bought
Speaker 2: a raccoon. I like, don't believe the story I'm about
Speaker 2: to tell, not that it didn't happen, but the like
Speaker 2: supernatural part of it is just like it focks in
Speaker 2: my head. But okay, So I bought this raccoon, this
Speaker 2: like squat raccoon statue as soon as they moved into
Speaker 2: my house, and I was like, and I would put
Speaker 2: it in my truck. And I was driving home and
Speaker 2: backcountry roads where I live, and I had never hit
Speaker 2: and killed an animal in my vehicle in my life.
Speaker 2: And for the like five miles that I had this
Speaker 2: raccoon statue in my truck, I hit and killed a raccoon.
Speaker 2: Oh and then I, you know, I took it out
Speaker 2: to the woods and stuff, and I kind of think
Speaker 2: it's spirit is now in the fucking curse statue that
Speaker 2: protects my house. And if I had known, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: have done it.
Speaker 1: This answer got weirder and weirder.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have done it. Raccoon.
Speaker 1: Somebody just wanted to know where your favorite frog was,
Speaker 1: And now we got raccoon spirits in a statue. And
Speaker 1: if that's not Margaret fucking killed Joy, I don't know
Speaker 1: what it is.
Speaker 2: And if you want a curse statue, buy them from
Speaker 2: the Monkey Pole Store, which is our primary sponsor these days.
Speaker 2: Ah is it? Yeah? I think so, isn't the Monkey
Speaker 2: Pas Store. Well, every goods and services is like a weird,
Speaker 2: horrible exchange. You know, there's a tear rible price, like
Speaker 2: if you want a good or service, you have to
Speaker 2: work a job. It's a terrible price.
Speaker 1: The curve is the it's the curse. And because a
Speaker 1: lot of people ask this when we did the it
Speaker 1: could happen here, Q and A and I saw a
Speaker 1: couple of people ask it. For the cool people, Q
Speaker 1: and A, I am desperately trying to get the Android
Speaker 1: ad free version up and running. It is not something
Speaker 1: that I can just click and say yes, like we've
Speaker 1: said yes on our end. We're just waiting on corporate
Speaker 1: bureaucracy to figure itself out. But I'm hoping to have
Speaker 1: it soon because I I yeah, I mean I would
Speaker 1: love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not brand loyalty on our part.
Speaker 1: It's for sure not brand loyalty on our part. And
Speaker 1: one of the main things that I wanted to do
Speaker 1: with this Android version is also make it so that
Speaker 1: you know, it's something that can be used on any
Speaker 1: any app you use already, and it's not something where
Speaker 1: you're just doing it on one thing. So hopefully that
Speaker 1: is coming very very soon, and we have good news
Speaker 1: for you on that. Yeah, in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Early in the meantime, there's that press fifteen seconds button
Speaker 2: waiting for you.
Speaker 1: Now and Wheat.
Speaker 2: Are back whoo.
Speaker 1: And somebody ask us to listen their top five fruits
Speaker 1: and vegetables and like that's a lot, So maybe give
Speaker 1: me your favorite fruit and your favorite vegetable, and I'll
Speaker 1: give you my favorite fruit and favorite vegetable.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm gonna come out confrontational green peppers my favorite vegetable. Okay,
Speaker 2: why is that called green bell peppers? As soon as
Speaker 2: I said I like green bell peppers, Twitter got mad
Speaker 2: at me. Oh, in kind of I like classic, why
Speaker 2: do you hate waffles? Kind of way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, shut the fuck up.
Speaker 2: I love green bell peppers. They're they're the most when
Speaker 2: I'm like, man, I need the taste of a vegetable.
Speaker 2: Nothing is vegetable like a green bell pepper. And my
Speaker 2: favorite fruit, I'm currently drying a bunch of apples, Like apples.
Speaker 2: Apples are great, so I've been really into dehydrating apples.
Speaker 1: I think for me, I have ties in both categories,
Speaker 1: So you're gonna get four because I simply cannot pick.
Speaker 1: And my top vegetables I think it's a tie between
Speaker 1: asparagus and Brussels sprouts.
Speaker 2: Oh those are good.
Speaker 1: Yeah. My brother has a really awesome roasted Brussels sprouts
Speaker 1: recipe where you know, you just roast the Brussels sprouts
Speaker 1: for about twenty five minutes, flip once, and it's just
Speaker 1: all oil on a little bit of sea salt, and
Speaker 1: then you mix them up with some red wine vinegar,
Speaker 1: a little bit of alsamic a, little bit of olive oil,
Speaker 1: a little bit of garlic, and some dijon. Lightly mix
Speaker 1: it up and it is perfection.
Speaker 2: Okay, see, I almost want to change my answer because
Speaker 2: what I said didn't make me hungry, but what you
Speaker 2: just said made me hungry.
Speaker 1: So fair enough, fair enough. And then my top two
Speaker 1: fruits are definitely as you just said, the apple because wow,
Speaker 1: I specifically really like cosmic crisp apples. And then blackberries,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Oh what an awesome fruit. And they're
Speaker 1: so easy to grow. I mean, they'll take over your
Speaker 1: entire fuck they took over all of Oregon. But blackberries
Speaker 1: are fucking delicious.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I saw a variety of this question several different times.
Speaker 1: And this person also also I loved the Muhammad Ali episodes.
Speaker 2: Thank you cool?
Speaker 1: Those were great episodes. Was that the one that Ian
Speaker 1: suggested us?
Speaker 2: That was a request from me?
Speaker 1: And yeah, yeah, shout out Ian. Who is your hero?
Speaker 1: It's a hard question.
Speaker 2: I would say probably Eric Omela Testa, who I have
Speaker 2: not covered on this show, but he shows up all
Speaker 2: the time. He's this Italian anarchist who once smuggled himself
Speaker 2: in a crate full of sewing machines to get to
Speaker 2: Brazil in order to write the how to Organize a
Speaker 2: Union by Acres that's like one of them. And then
Speaker 2: the one that's like more direct and more impactful in
Speaker 2: my life is our Sloliquin. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Somebody asked you your favorite book of a Versuilas also.
Speaker 2: Oh, okay, fuck, I mean, I've read The Dispossessed the most,
Speaker 2: but I think that probably a book of her short
Speaker 2: stories called Urcinian Tales. I have like a real love
Speaker 2: for her short fiction, and it like stays in my
Speaker 2: mind really well, and she just probably has more influence
Speaker 2: on me artistically than anyone else.
Speaker 1: What about you, I don't really want to answer this
Speaker 1: one because I don't think you have like one person
Speaker 1: that I'm like, this is my personal hero that I
Speaker 1: want that I could pick.
Speaker 2: I also think that.
Speaker 1: I don't know, humans maybe aren't meant to be heroes.
Speaker 2: Totally part of the reason I haven't done a Malla
Speaker 2: test episode yet. What if he sucked? I don't know.
Speaker 2: No one ever talks about his family. You know, you
Speaker 2: know it's that.
Speaker 1: I hear you, I hear you. There's a great question
Speaker 1: from somebody that said, out of all the people you've
Speaker 1: talked about. Who do you think your dog would have
Speaker 1: loved to meet?
Speaker 2: Everyone who is reasonably short? It's so real. He loves
Speaker 2: all of them and the only way to get away
Speaker 2: with being a large person with My dog has been
Speaker 2: really into dogs. Yeah, so whoever likes dogs the most?
Speaker 2: My dog just loves dog people and gets so confused
Speaker 2: by anyone who isn't as excited as he is.
Speaker 1: Yeah. For me, I think that Anderson would have liked
Speaker 1: to have met the riot dog El Negro Matapacos.
Speaker 2: Oh fuck, no, you're totally right. I need to think
Speaker 2: of the dogs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the one that the all black dog with the
Speaker 1: red bandana. Anderson's a been Dana girl herself. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think they would have had fun patrolling the Hue Romans.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh, this is a great question. How do you explain
Speaker 1: anarchism to people who are skeptical about it?
Speaker 2: Okay, that's both a great question and also like one
Speaker 2: of the weird hardest questions. It really kind of depends
Speaker 2: on where someone's coming out about it. A lot of
Speaker 2: it for me is that I'm like, well, what if
Speaker 2: we took the best parts of both caring for the
Speaker 2: individual and caring for the community. And put them together.
Speaker 2: And what if the main argument that people had in
Speaker 2: the twentieth century between like capitalism and communism, the individual
Speaker 2: versus the community, Like what if they're both right and
Speaker 2: they're both wrong. And one of the main things I
Speaker 2: start with is that anarchism isn't what you got told
Speaker 2: it is. You know, it's an existing social movement and
Speaker 2: concept that's been around one hundred and fifty years that
Speaker 2: has practitioners of all different types and ideas. And yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's so funny because it's like such
Speaker 2: a you're like, it's the ideology. That's not an ideology,
Speaker 2: it's the you know. Oh god, that was my broadcaster voice.
Speaker 2: I heard the advertiser voice. Yeah, I don't know, you know,
Speaker 2: because I try not to like convince people to go
Speaker 2: become anarchists or whatever, right, I just like want people
Speaker 2: to like learn that it's not what they got told
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 1: It's a great answer. How do you feel about co ops?
Speaker 2: I love co ops? Is there like a context?
Speaker 1: Is it just like the person said, tell us how
Speaker 1: you feel about co ops?
Speaker 2: I very recently worked for a nonprofit that helps finance
Speaker 2: worker cooperatives, and the way I feel about like grocery
Speaker 2: store co ops is like more complicated. If you want
Speaker 2: to hear my hearing thoughts about that, you can listen
Speaker 2: to our episode that we did with author ren Or
Speaker 2: Eye where they explained food cooperatives and their complicated history.
Speaker 2: I think it's a very useful way to engage as
Speaker 2: anti capitalists in a market economy and subvert a lot
Speaker 2: of expectations around it. And also a lot of the
Speaker 2: work that's been done by cooperatives comes from racialized people
Speaker 2: and especially black communities in the United States, And there's
Speaker 2: like all kinds of work that people have been doing
Speaker 2: around like how to stop economic extras action from impoverished areas.
Speaker 2: And I think we have a lot to learn. Nothing
Speaker 2: has taught me more about how capitalism works than working
Speaker 2: for a place that finances work or cooperatives in a
Speaker 2: good way.
Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite person you've covered this year?
Speaker 2: I love all my children equally. When people ask me this,
Speaker 2: it's like when people like ask me what my favorite
Speaker 2: book is, my first thought is, I've never read a book.
Speaker 2: What is a book you know? Or like, who's your
Speaker 2: favorite band? I'm like, I've never heard of music. I
Speaker 2: don't know. I don't know what I've done. As soon
Speaker 2: as someone asks.
Speaker 1: Me that, I completely agree. Do you have a favorite bird?
Speaker 1: I love all these animal questions. These are great.
Speaker 2: Probably maglizes.
Speaker 1: Fair enough.
Speaker 2: I picked them as my name. You know, yeah, what
Speaker 2: about you? What's your favorite bird? I just like birds.
Speaker 1: I I definitely have a bird feeder in my yard
Speaker 1: and what I like when they come and eat the food.
Speaker 1: I've had a lot of hummingbirds over by my desk
Speaker 1: lately and that's been nice to look at. But I
Speaker 1: like all birds. My brother is like terrified of birds,
Speaker 1: which you know makes me happy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have a bird feeder right outside my office window,
Speaker 2: and yeah, I know I see it. Well that's the
Speaker 2: that's the hummingbird feeder and there's no humming. It was
Speaker 2: a terrible plan. But on the other window you can't
Speaker 2: see it from here, there's a bird feeder that it
Speaker 2: took the birds like a month of fine as as
Speaker 2: they found it. Now they're like constantly there and it's
Speaker 2: all these tufted tit mouses and I'm super excited about it.
Speaker 2: I had to ask my friend whenever on this show
Speaker 2: I like secretly talk about like I had to ask
Speaker 2: my friend this thing. It's always the same friend. So
Speaker 2: if you're listening, hi, thanks for telling me. It was
Speaker 2: a tough to tiss tit mouse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to take another quick break, but we shall,
Speaker 1: we shall be back.
Speaker 2: It would take a break for what.
Speaker 1: For for capitalism or for pressing the fifteen second skip button,
Speaker 1: or for those who have the cooler Cooler Zone media
Speaker 1: subscription on an Apple for literally nothing, and we're back.
Speaker 2: Come, We're back.
Speaker 1: That was really fun. I think I saw this a
Speaker 1: couple of times. But what is your research in planning
Speaker 1: and writing process, like for an episode? And I also
Speaker 1: saw it for when you're ready to write like a
Speaker 1: short story.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, that's fiction and fiction short story. Yeah. So
Speaker 2: with an episode, I somewhere around the end of the
Speaker 2: week shortly after recording the last episode, or I plan
Speaker 2: them out ahead of time. Sometimes I plan them out
Speaker 2: way ahead of time. I kind of match them a
Speaker 2: little bit to the guest. I don't tell the guests
Speaker 2: what it's about, but I try to find something that
Speaker 2: the guest doesn't know as much as me about, or
Speaker 2: doesn't know as much as I'm about to learn about,
Speaker 2: but has a general interest in, or like a broader
Speaker 2: context of understanding, like a you know, whether shared identity
Speaker 2: or whether like knows some people who are involved in
Speaker 2: similar struggles or whatever thing, And so I pick a subject. Honestly,
Speaker 2: these days, I mostly go to my bookshelf and I
Speaker 2: find because I just I just buy fuck tons of
Speaker 2: history books, and I go to my bookshelf and I
Speaker 2: kind of have like a running list of things that
Speaker 2: I'm excited about, and then I'll usually take a book
Speaker 2: or two as kind of my first and primary source.
Speaker 2: But then I'm really interested in filling in lots of
Speaker 2: context and stuff like that, and so often, I mean, frankly,
Speaker 2: one of the things I do for research is I'll
Speaker 2: start on Wikipedia, but I don't end there. I look
Speaker 2: into the sources that inspire the Wikipedia, and then I
Speaker 2: also end up looking at but a lot of academic articles,
Speaker 2: and I just kind of like slowly piece it together.
Speaker 2: I ease take about the first day of work just
Speaker 2: to hear how people usually tell the story, and then
Speaker 2: think about how I want to tell the story and
Speaker 2: get all the pieces, and then I start filling it in,
Speaker 2: and I also take notes as I write, and then
Speaker 2: by the third or fourth day, I'm usually mostly writing
Speaker 2: and going back and putting all the pieces together, and
Speaker 2: I don't know that's how I do it. I have
Speaker 2: no academic training or background, so it's been an interesting
Speaker 2: I have a lot of writing background, and I have
Speaker 2: a lot of research background and even background history, but
Speaker 2: I don't have a background specifically in the formal way
Speaker 2: of like collecting all the sources and researching and stuff,
Speaker 2: you know, And so I've been like hitting up friends
Speaker 2: who do have more of that experience short stories I
Speaker 2: do have more formal education with, and I've kind of
Speaker 2: exploding head diagramed, gone back and forth between whether or
Speaker 2: not I outline extensively or not. I started off like
Speaker 2: never outlining. I'm like, I'm just writing a story, and
Speaker 2: then like, why do all my stories fail? And someone
Speaker 2: was like, that's because you don't outline them. You don't
Speaker 2: know what's going to happen, you know. And so then
Speaker 2: I started writing more from outlines, and I use a
Speaker 2: lot of specific not formulas, but like structures for stories.
Speaker 2: My favorite one is the try fail sequence. And then
Speaker 2: I write a story and then I let it change
Speaker 2: the outline as I go, as I learn more about
Speaker 2: the characters, and then honestly these days, I think I'm
Speaker 2: a practiced enough writer, but sometimes I'm back to just
Speaker 2: being like, I got an idea, I got like a
Speaker 2: character and what's wrong and where they are, and then
Speaker 2: I just write it and then I do a second draft.
Speaker 2: I don't follow a lot of what Heinland Robert Heinland
Speaker 2: had to say, but I follow Hinland's rules of writing,
Speaker 2: and any aspiring fiction writer I highly or even artist
Speaker 2: in general, I highly recommend looking at Hineland's rules of writing,
Speaker 2: which is very much about like starting things, finishing things,
Speaker 2: and not getting caught up revising the shit out of everything.
Speaker 2: And I actually think that that's helped me a lot.
Speaker 2: To tie it back into the podcast with the fact
Speaker 2: that I do a weekly podcast is that I cannot
Speaker 2: really sit around with revisions over and over again. I
Speaker 2: just have to learn to get things right the first time.
Speaker 2: And except that sometimes I won't get things right, I
Speaker 2: mean I've always right. You know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Do you have a dream guest for this podcast?
Speaker 2: Depends on how good of a Ouiji board I confind.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say the Ghost of Emma Goldman.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally, that's the reverse episode I want.
Speaker 1: I immediately want ghost.
Speaker 2: Also, yeah, I've had most of my dream guests on
Speaker 2: this show. Yea for me, Like, I mean sometimes you
Speaker 2: can kind of tell, like I'm a big Mountain Goats fan.
Speaker 2: So having John Darnell on and talking about the Levelers
Speaker 2: and the Ranters in the English Civil War and then
Speaker 2: arguing about theology and politics with John Darnell was like
Speaker 2: really nice for me, you know. But no, I mean,
Speaker 2: my dream guests are the ones that are easy to
Speaker 2: work with than smart and funny, and like, I'm not
Speaker 2: worried that they're going to be like scared off by
Speaker 2: the radical politics of the show. But I also don't
Speaker 2: think that they're going to be so purely invested in
Speaker 2: radical culture that the average listener has no fucking clue
Speaker 2: what we're talking about, you know, Like the perfect guest
Speaker 2: bridges the history from my script to the reader.
Speaker 1: Great answer.
Speaker 2: Thanks, Thanks.
Speaker 1: How did we meet?
Speaker 2: How did we meet through Robert Evans?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Through Robert Evans, I believe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I guess probably the first time I met
Speaker 2: you as guesting on well, we probably talked by email first,
Speaker 2: but when I guessed it on Behind the Bastards for
Speaker 2: the first time several years ago.
Speaker 1: Uh, huh. I think that's right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then in person, just in whatever mysterious place
Speaker 2: we live that happened to be the same at the
Speaker 2: same time.
Speaker 1: Yep. Do you have a favorite Rintross story from this year?
Speaker 2: Hmm. It's funny because, like Rintrow, like I think about
Speaker 2: how like when I was younger, I had all these
Speaker 2: stories because all this crazy shit kept happening to me, right,
Speaker 2: and like bad stuff happened all the time. I live
Speaker 2: a very low key life, so most of my Rentrot
Speaker 2: stories are like you wouldn't believe the nerve a truck
Speaker 2: drove by today, or like you know when rintroll. Okay,
Speaker 2: here's my favorite Rentrost story from this year. I was
Speaker 2: staying at my friend's cabin and my friend in in
Speaker 2: on the West Coast, and my friend was like, oh,
Speaker 2: the cabin's haunted, just as a heads up, and again
Speaker 2: I kind of don't believe a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 2: And then as I'm like hanging out outside this like
Speaker 2: other person from like the cabin neighborhood walked by and
Speaker 2: was like, oh, you're staying there and I was like yeah,
Speaker 2: and he was like, you don't go into that one
Speaker 2: room upstairs, right, And I'm like, uh no, which room,
Speaker 2: And then I like and then I stay in the
Speaker 2: cabin by myself, just me and Rentrow because my friend leaves,
Speaker 2: and I'm, you know, there for a week or whatever,
Speaker 2: me and my dog in this cabin in the woods.
Speaker 2: And it's like mostly fine, but I kind of a
Speaker 2: little bit like I don't watch horror movies that week,
Speaker 2: and I kind of like don't really leave the bedroom
Speaker 2: in the middle of the night, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then one night I'm like up anyway, and so
Speaker 2: I'm in the main part of the cabin and Rentrow
Speaker 2: just goes over to this rocking chair in one of
Speaker 2: these rooms and just starts fucking alerting hardcore at this
Speaker 2: empty rocking chair in the middle of the night in
Speaker 2: the supposedly haunted cabin. And I'm like, that's cool, everything's fine.
Speaker 2: That's my favorite Rentrot story. And then I died and
Speaker 2: now I'm a ghost.
Speaker 1: Yeah. One of my favorite things about Rentrot was the
Speaker 1: time that I took here again smoothies and Rentro does
Speaker 1: not like cars, no, but he only seemed to it,
Speaker 1: and it's and I don't know, there's probably some scientists,
Speaker 1: but he only barked at the gas cars he didn't
Speaker 1: bark at the electric or hybrid cars, and I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: we're dressed so woke.
Speaker 2: I know, I know, it so funny. Yeah, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I think that like when the engine isn't running, it's
Speaker 2: just like, oh, it's a big silent thing. It must
Speaker 2: be like about the noises.
Speaker 1: Definitely. Yeah, Rench I was also a delightful dog to
Speaker 1: hike with.
Speaker 2: Yes, he's a great hiker.
Speaker 1: Yeah. What are some things that give you hope when
Speaker 1: things seem heavy or too hard? I think I think
Speaker 1: we'll end on that one.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll use a story and I don't think I've
Speaker 2: told on this podcast before, but I'm sure I use
Speaker 2: this story. Sometimes. There was a hurricane in eastern North
Speaker 2: Carolina and it flooded just huge chunks of eastern North Carolina.
Speaker 2: And one of my best friends was there doing flood relief,
Speaker 2: and you know, and the only way you could get
Speaker 2: into this storm affected area was in small plains, right,
Speaker 2: and small plains are like the dangerous planes. But the
Speaker 2: kind of people who own small planes tend to be
Speaker 2: like libertarian guys, right like, And so you know, this
Speaker 2: anarchist friend of mine who's a you know, filthy crustpunk
Speaker 2: who you know has a beard down to their navel
Speaker 2: or whatever, you know, and like is flying in this
Speaker 2: tiny plane with this random libertarian guy into a storm,
Speaker 2: you know. And I'm like, people come together in crisis.
Speaker 2: And when you give people the opportunity to become helpers,
Speaker 2: and when you give people the opportunity to become helpers
Speaker 2: in ways that they are uniquely suited to be helpful,
Speaker 2: people rise to that. That's what gives me hope. There's
Speaker 2: a there's a lot of like not hope going around,
Speaker 2: including in my own head. But yeah, that's what I
Speaker 2: hold on to.
Speaker 1: What about you, I think just seeing seeing how people
Speaker 1: have evolved and have seeing so many different people that
Speaker 1: are listening.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of people that.
Speaker 1: Are listening these days and are not just staying in
Speaker 1: there and staying in their old old ways of thinking
Speaker 1: and are adapting and are really moving with the movements.
Speaker 1: And that's really fucking cool. And I've seen that, you know,
Speaker 1: even with like you know, senior family members and you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, and just people just paying a
Speaker 1: little bit more attention to what's misinformation and disinformation and
Speaker 1: really learning to do their own research and talk and
Speaker 1: not just talk at you, but listen. I think listening
Speaker 1: gives me hope.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. Well, well, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's our message of hope. From acting as if I'm sarcastic,
Speaker 2: I really earnestly believe in being optimistic, at least strategically.
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, me too, so and we will talk
Speaker 2: to you next week with a more regular episode.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, do you have anything you want to plug?
Speaker 2: It's a whole new year. I don't have a bunch
Speaker 2: of projects. I have a book coming out at the
Speaker 2: end of the year. I'm going to tell you so
Speaker 2: much more about that over the course of the year.
Speaker 2: And I'm really excited too. It's my longest novel and
Speaker 2: it's the first book of a trilogy, and I'm really
Speaker 2: excited about that.
Speaker 1: My colleague and friend, James Stout has been doing a
Speaker 1: lot of really amazing work, and I would just like
Speaker 1: to plug that. You know, the CPD is detaining thousands
Speaker 1: upon thousands of migrants, which includes both elderly folks and children,
Speaker 1: and it's cold, and they're in the desert where there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of shelter, and they're desperately in need
Speaker 1: of food and water and other resources as temperatures get
Speaker 1: very cold, and I just wanted to plug a couple
Speaker 1: of the mutual aid groups help bring them. The first
Speaker 1: thing I'm going to give you is tiny rail slash
Speaker 1: order aid GFM. That's b O R D E R
Speaker 1: AI d G F M or GoFundMe dot com, slash
Speaker 1: j A c U M b A dash M I
Speaker 1: g r A n T dash c A m p
Speaker 1: S And that's that's all over several of our different shows.
Speaker 1: And I can also include in the link for this
Speaker 1: episode description. But yeah, check that out.
Speaker 2: And you don't even have to fly into a hurricane
Speaker 2: in order to help those people. You can just give
Speaker 2: money to the people who desperately need your money. And
Speaker 2: like most of the time, throwing money at problems isn't
Speaker 2: the solution. Right now, there are people who are ready
Speaker 2: to use your money very directly to help people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's all I got, all right, see y'all soon.
Speaker 1: Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff is a production Cool
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